The present invention relates to a vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine for driving the vehicle and a generator driven by the internal combustion engine, and supplies power to a load when the vehicle is stopped.
In recent years, vehicles driven by an internal combustion engine such as ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles), tractors, or recreation vehicles have been incorporating a generator driven by an internal combustion engine for driving a vehicle, and supplying a commercial AC output of AC 100 V or AC 200 V (50 Hz or 60 Hz) to a load when the vehicle is stopped, in order to allow electric tools or home appliances to be used outdoors. Such a vehicle is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-231106.
Such a vehicle often uses a continuously variable transmission (CVT) having a gear position for cutting power transmission and a centrifugal clutch connected at a speed equal to or higher than a predetermined clutch-in speed (normally, 2000 r/min to 3000 r/min), as a power transmission device that is provided between an internal combustion engine and drive wheels.
When the vehicle driven by the internal combustion engine having the generator as described above uses the power transmission device including the centrifugal clutch, the generator is started in a state that the gear position of the power transmission device is in a position other than a neutral position or a parking position, and when a rotational speed of the internal combustion engine is increased to a rotational speed required for obtaining a predetermined generation output, the centrifugal clutch is connected to cause runaway of the vehicle. In order to prevent this, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-231106, the internal combustion engine driven vehicle has a gear position sensor that detects a gear position of the power transmission device, and only when the sensor detects that the gear position is in a position for cutting the power transmission, a rotational speed control in a generating mode is performed.
However, even with such a construction, if a failure of the gear position sensor, or a failure of the transmission device causes the gear position sensor to detect by mistake that the power transmission is cut, in spite that the power transmission device is in a state for power transmission, the generator is started, and thus a possibility of runaway of the vehicle at the time of generation cannot be completely eliminated.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine incorporating a generator that can prevent runaway of the vehicle at the time of generation independently of a gear position sensor.
The invention is applied to a vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine comprising a power transmission device that has a centrifugal clutch to be connected at a speed equal to or higher than a predetermined clutch-in speed, and is provided between a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine and drive wheels of the vehicle; and a generator driven by the internal combustion engine, wherein the generator is operated to supply power to a load when the vehicle is stopped. In the invention, the generator is constituted so as to generate a nominal output while the internal combustion engine rotates at a rotational speed between an idle rotational speed and the clutch-in speed.
By such a construction, the generator generates the nominal output while the engine rotates at the rotational speed between the idle rotational speed and the clutch-in speed, thus the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine does not reach the clutch-in speed when the generator is operated. Thus, a possibility of the centrifugal clutch being connected to cause runaway of the vehicle when the generator is operated can be eliminated.